There was silence in Belfast Crown Court on Thursday as the not guilty verdict in the trial of the former British paratrooper known as Solider F was announced. He had faced charges of murder and attempted murder arising from the events of Bloody Sunday in Derry in January 1972 that resulted in the deaths of fourteen people. The silence was in stark contrast to the noise generated by the vindication in 2010 of the innocent victims after the publication of the Saville Report. When British prime minister David Cameron apologised to the victims and their families in the wake of that report there were cheers from those gathered in Derry’s Guildhall Square.
The poisoned atmosphere of the 1970s led to lies, evasion and blatant propaganda. That climate produced the report into Bloody Sunday by Lord Chief Justice Widgery in April 1972. Widgery ignored the people of Derry – the witnesses, the families of the victims and the survivors- in producing his scandalous 39-page document.
In 1998, the British ministry of defence opposed a new Bloody Sunday inquiry, insisting there was little hope of reaching “widely acceptable conclusions” and because “it would in effect put the army at large in the dock”. At that point, the British prime minister Tony Blair told taoiseach Bertie Ahern that he did not want to reopen old wounds. Ahern responded that the Bloody Sunday wounds “had never been closed”. An acceptance of that reality led to the Saville Inquiry that, over the course of 1998 to 2010, became the longest running inquiry in British legal history. But the subsequent path to prosecutions was lengthy and contorted.
Despite the recent Legacy Framework agreed between the two governments it is unlikely that any more former soldiers will stand trial on Troubles related charges. For all the progress over the decades, wounds have not fully healed and there are still too many in Northern Ireland without answers and accountability. The resilient and dignified Bloody Sunday families have vowed to fight on, but face significant hurdles.
